Whenever cargo is transported on a moving vehicle it is essential that the cargo be securely attached to the vehicle. Without secure attachment between the cargo and the vehicle, shifting or other movement of the cargo may occur as the vehicle moves, leading to damage to the cargo or even to accidents in which not only may the cargo be damaged, but people may be injured.
There are many methods for attaching cargo to vehicles, most of the methods depending upon the nature of the cargo and the kind of vehicle transporting the cargo. One of the most common methods of securing cargo, and one that is both useful and effective, is to strap the cargo to the vehicle, or to a rack on the vehicle, with one or more cargo straps. For instance, cargo may be supported on a vehicle rack and one or more straps are connected between the cargo and the rack to provide a secure attachment and to prevent undesired movement of the cargo during transport.
The strap method is used with many kinds of cargoes and vehicles, from logs carried on logging trucks to relatively smaller cargo items such as boxes carried in the bed of a standard pick up truck. The use of straps to tie cargo to a supporting structure is particularly useful with relatively lighter cargoes such as bicycles, ladders, hand trucks, wheelbarrows and other light industrial tools that are attached to racks for pick up trucks or car-top racks for automobiles.
However, a common problem encountered with using straps to secure cargo to a vehicle is that the straps are often misplaced or lost, or are not readily available when the time comes for strapping the cargo to the rack. As anyone who has experienced a lost cargo strap knows, a lost strap can be a significant inconvenience, as an inordinate amount of time can be spent hunting for the lost strap. In addition, when securing cargo to a rack it is often necessary to have the strap immediately available at the time the cargo is loaded onto the rack, for instance when the strap itself provides part of the support system for the cargo.
In addition to the problems associated with lost or misplaced straps, another common problem is not having enough straps on hand to adequately secure the load to the vehicle. This problem is often a result of the problem just described--lost or misplaced straps. That is, since straps are often lost, there may not be enough of them available when the time comes for them to be used. Regardless of the source of the problem, it is inconvenient to have too few straps available, and may lead to a load being inadequately secured on a vehicle.
There is a need therefore for improved apparatus for securing cargo to supports, and particularly apparatus that eliminates the problems associated with lost securing straps and not having enough straps to secure the cargo.
Many cargo securement systems utilize a combination of safety hooks of various shapes combined with elastic cords-commonly known as bungee cords. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,121 describes a safety hook having a guiding tunnel and an anchoring beak for securing the cord in a fixed position on the hook. The beak forms an offset cavity with a facing wall of the base portion of the hook, and the beak is used to grip the cord when it is looped through the guiding tunnel and is crimped within the beak. This system allows the position of the hook to be adjusted along the length of the cord.
As another example of such a combination hook with bungee cord is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,788. That patent describes a hook that is attached to the terminal end of a bungee cord and which has finger holes molded into the body of the hook.
One further example of a hook and bungee device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 307,705. That patent illustrates a hook having a gated hook end and a base having one transversely open channel and one closed channel. The body of the hook includes a V-shaped opening for crimping the bungee. In use, a bungee is threaded through a channel in the base, through the V-shaped opening, and through the other channel. The hook is secured in place along the length of the cord by the crimping action of the V-shaped opening.
However, a problem commonly encountered with present securement systems such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 307,705 and 5,317,788 is that it is impossible to position the hook in an intermediate position along the length of the bungee cord when the two ends of the cord are fixed. For example, an end of the cord used with the hook shown in Des. 307,705 must be threaded through multiple openings, which of course requires a free terminal end. With U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,788 the hook is fixed to a terminal end of the cord. And while it is possible with the hook shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,121 to position the hook on a cord between the two ends, it may be difficult to position the hook at an intermediate location when the cord is under any significant amount of tension. Many tarpaulins such as those used for camping have bungee cord threaded through a series of grommets spaced around the periphery of the tarpaulin. To fix the tarpaulin in a useful configuration, such as a lean-to, it is necessary to attach the tarpaulin to fixed objects at selected positions around the periphery by connecting the cord to the fixed object. It would be advantageous to be able to selectively position a removable hook at any position around the tarpaulin. Positioning the hook of U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,121 at such an intermediate position requires that a loop be formed in the cord and that the loop be fed through the laterally closed channel through the base of the hook. This may be difficult if the cord is under significant tension.